Collegiate softball allows some hands on experience before the actual season.

Sunday marks the start of eight exhibition games for Saluki softball, with noon and 4 p.m. start times at Charlotte West Stadium against Lindenwood University-Belleville and Murray State, respectively. 

“This is our first opportunity to see everybody,” coach Kerri Blaylock said. “We have to make sure to get all our pitchers in different situations. I usually use several different lineups, different orders, different places all over the field positionally.”

Blaylock said the fall season is a big help, allowing her to use all her players before the actual season, starting in February. 

The NCAA limits “skill work” such as individual drills to only two hours a week and only eight hours overall between fall season and spring season.

Blaylock said it makes these fall games and practices even more critical.

“We’re throwing a lot at them right now,” she said. “A lot of different defensive sets, a lot of different coverages, because we have to throw it at them [before off-season practices begin].”

Associate head coach Jen Sewell said this fall season also serves as a good time to see how players treated the offseason.

“We’re just trying to find out everyone’s place right now,” she said. “We’re trying to get an evaluation on them, where they’re at right now and what they did [to get better] in the summer and where they’re going to fit.”

Buddy Foster, who served as assistant coach from 2000 to 2005 and 2014 to 2015, took the position of director of athletics at Morthland College in West Frankfort during the offseason. 

Foster has been replaced by former Saluki third baseman Katie Wagner — a former all-Missouri Valley Conference honoree who played for Blaylock from 2006 to 2009 — who will be working primarily with the outfielders. 

Blaylock said she is excited to see what Wagner will offer.

“She has tons of energy and she’s so happy to be back,” Blaylock said. “I think she’ll be a good bridge between me and the players.”

Wagner said it is huge to come back to Saluki softball.

“It’s home to me,” she said. “I had a lot of great experiences here, I grew up here. I think it says something to have all these experiences here and want to come back.”

Wagner said it was great to learn under Blaylock and her respect for Blaylock and associate head coach Jen Sewell is what drove her to come back to Carbondale. 

“[Competing] is what Saluki softball is about,” she said. “It’s just going out and being hard-nosed softball players.”

Sean Carley can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter @SCarleyDE